Association between health-related quality of life and overall survival of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma in CheckMate 214

The multinational phase 3 CheckMate 214 trial randomized patients with intermediate- or poor-risk advanced renal cell carcinoma (aRCC) to first-line nivolumab plus ipilimumab or sunitinib. Primary analysis of the trial (at median follow-up 25.2 months) showed that the nivolumab plus ipiliumab group had improved overall survival and health-related quality of life when compared to the sunitinib group. Post-hoc analysis of the trial found that among all randomized patients baseline HRQOL scores were predictive for OS (high versus low scores HR 0.834; 95% CI 0.796-0.873). Patients with improved or stable HRQOL scores at 3 months after randomization versus baseline had longer median OS than patients with worsened HRQOL (55.9 versus 26.0 months; HR 0.56; 95% CI 0.46-0.67). Results at 6-, 9-, and 12-month landmarks were consistent with these findings. The authors conclude that among aRCC patients, patient-reported outcomes are important for HRQOL and prognostic evaluation.